Dancing

Irvine Welsh is best known for a rather dark world-view in his novels. "Trainspotting," the basis for the international film success, got deep inside the horror of heroin. And his next novel, "Filth," is said to take that theme even further. But with music, Welsh has turned into Mr. Sunshine. Looking for a way to escape the dank depression of his writing, Welsh has formed a disco group with Kris Needs of the dance duo Secret Knowledge, singer Sarah Jane Harrison and drummer Henry Cullen.

No Jon, but Kate is enough for ABC win Is there anything Kate Gosselin can't do? The reality star made her debut on ABC's "Dancing With the Stars" and helped power the talent show to its best season-premiere numbers ever. Almost 24 million people tuned in to the two-hour episode and helped drive ABC to a Monday-night win in both viewers and key demographics. Of course, many may have been tuning in to see if Gosselin would stumble and still others might have checked out the show to see what Pam Anderson would wear or whether football star Chad Ochocinco would score big off the field.

July 26, 2013 | By Susan King, This post has been corrected, as indicated below.

"Dancing With the Stars" dancer-choreographer extraordinaire Derek Hough will be dancing under the stars when he joins the California Philharmonic on Saturday at the Festival on the Green at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia for an evening of music and dance called "Dance Fever. " But while people may come for the dancing, the performance (repeating indoors Sunday afternoon at Walt Disney Concert Hall) will mark a personal milestone for Hough: It will be the first time he sings with a symphony orchestra.

Green Bay Packers receiver Donald Driver is in this week's finale of "Dancing with the Stars", and has an excellent chance of joining the list of athletes who have won the ballroom dance competition. He may have a better chance after a group of Wisconsin athletes, politicians and one Milwaukee Bucks mascot banded together for a video urging people to vote for Driver. If the video inspires the entire Packer Nation to vote his way, Driver could win pretty handily, because the winner is based on a combination of judges' scores and fan votes.

The Times is pleased to have Baltimore Ravens wide receiver Jacoby Jones guest-blogging for us while he competes on "Dancing With the Stars. " Each week while he competes on the show, Jones will answer a few questions from Sports Now editor Houston Mitchell and give some insight into the competition. Here are Jones' thoughts about Week 4, which he offered via email. Q. Your son obviously means a great deal to you. How has having a child changed your life? It's really a blessing.

The Pussycat Doll is now the "Dancing With the Stars" champ. Nicole Scherzinger and partner Derek Hough dominated throughout the 10th season of the hit ABC show and bested Olympic gold medalist Evan Lysacek to win the "Dancing" crown Tuesday night. Scherzinger performed a high-energy jive as her final dance that earned a perfect score of 30. Lysacek's quickstep also earned the judges' praise but just 28 points. ESPN sportscaster Erin Andrews, the third finalist, and her professional partner, Maksim Chmerkovskiy, were eliminated from the dance-off halfway through the two-hour season closer.

Emmitt Smith was the first athlete to win "Dancing With the Stars. " That was in Season 3, after Jerry Rice finished second in Season 2 to Drew Lachey, the less famous but maybe more talented younger brother of singer Nick Lachey (who used to hang out with USC quarterback Matt Leinart, but that's a whole other reality show). Since then, four other athletes have won the mirror-ball trophy given to the winning couple and, counting Pittsburgh Steelers great Hines Ward on Monday night, 12 have made it to the final three.